Fudge Babies

These incredible Fudge Babies are the perfect raw, vegan, paleo dessert. With just 5 ingredients, they’re super easy to make. All you need to make Fudge Babies is walnuts, cacao powder, dates, vanilla, and salt. I love making this healthy no-bake dessert during the summer. It’s perfect for those hot days when we eat loads of raw food recipes and keep our oven turned off.

Although Fudge Babies are small they’re packed with wildly fudgey deliciousness, and are so good your junk food loving friends won’t ever guess they’re made with wholesome, healthy ingredients.

Place dates, walnuts, cacao powder, vanilla, and salt in a food processor

Pulse on high speed until smooth

Roll mixture into balls

Serve

This paleo vegan dessert recipe is based on one by Chocolate Covered Katie. I made some minor changes to the recipe to make it more compatible with the way I eat. First, I used less than one-half the amount of dates she uses in her recipe because I am focused on reducing the amount of sugar in my diet, whether natural or processed. I also increased the amount of salt because I find more salt brings out the flavor of sweetness in many recipes.

After I read about Katie’s famous Fudge Babies I knew I’d need to make my own. And I knew they were a success because when my husband walked in the door he ate one. Then another. And another. And so on. You get the idea. I had to cut him off from the Fudge Babies. I hope you all love this healthy dessert as much as we do!

Comments

Whatta homerun these babies are! For the longest time, I’ve been trying various Paleo dessert recipes. Half the time I end up throwing the final product in the trash because it just doesn’t taste good. Blech! Just as I was about to throw in the towel and resign myself to NEVER having another sweet treat again, here you come with this fabulous recipe!!! So excited am I, I’m making a double batch to take to a friends house for dessert tonight. They will NOT believe it when I tell them the ingredients. It’s a guilt free treat! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for posting!

I make fudge babies into rum balls. Once they become a rough paste in the food processor, I add in two tablespoons of rum. Then I continue to process them until they’re a smooth paste. Then when I form them into balls, I roll them in unsweetened coconut flakes or cocoa powder cut with a little powdered sugar. YUM!

Hello Elana – have only just discovered your site. It is such a credit to you. The notion that healing can be effected through sound nutrition comes through clearly.

Sadly, many of us come to realise that food and healing go hand in glove, only when health issues strike. My mission of healing was sparked by my daughter’s autoimmune disease. Finding a way to restore health for her brought untold health benefits for our whole family.

Love this recipe! I make the batch (sometimes 2x) and press it into a 9×9 pan and freeze it. The result is a brownie-like square that has great texture and flavor. I’ve also added about a 1/3 of a ripe banana to the mixer for a great twist.

What a delicious kick of chocolate! I love these. I added just a tiny dollop of honey to mine because they were a little dry (perhaps because my walnuts came out of the freezer, or maybe I got a little heavy handed with the cocoa powder). I see why there are so many variations – yum yum yum!

I showed the recipe for these at work and most people said ‘eewwww’ Then I made them and brought the babies to work. Everyone said ‘yummmmmmy’ I have a bag of them in my freezer and pull out a ball or three when I need a sweet.
I have recently started to eat healthy. I am drinking green smoothies twice a day, no dairy, limited grains. I came across your website in my search for recipes-info-inspiration. Love it. And I lost 10 lbs in 2 weeks. Only 100 more to go!!
Thank you I think I will make my husband your carrot cake for his birthday.

I love these! I’ve also made them with date sugar. They were really dry (as anticipated because I wasn’t following the recipe exactly) so I added a 3-inch piece of ripe banana as a binder and they were delicious and easy to form into balls.

I just made these 5 minutes ago and there is only one word to describe them… AMAZING!! I’m in heaven! They’re the first “sweet” tasting thing I’ve had in almost 2 weeks after going gluten/wheat free, dairy free, and sugar free… and AHH I can’t get over how good these taste!

My son went GF 8 weeks ago and has seen amazing results. He is only 12 and about 4 weeks in he decided on his own to stick with it because he is feeling so much better. I have to give you a TON of the credit because of all the sites and recipes we have tried, yours are by far his favorite. He is a VERY picky eater and we work to stay as healthy as possible (low sugar, low processed food). We’ve made many recipes from this site (LOVE the power protein bars) and today we just made these fudge babies. I bought your book and liked it on FB in support of your fantastic efforts!!

Just blogged about how good these are! I just found the recipe today, and JUST made the fudge babies – and I could honestly eat the whole batch. I added a spoonful of natural peanut butter, and it’s heavenly. *sigh*

My friend Brooke, over at gfbrooke.wordpress.com, forwarded me this recipe and said I had to check it out! I made them about an hour later and haven’t been able to stop eating them! They’re so delicious! And I definitely think adding the sea salt really makes them pop! I might even sneak a touch more in – I adore those sweet and salty combos. Thanks for the awesome new recipe! :)

Thanks so much for the recipe. I’m new to GF/primal. Very new. Anyway, I didn’t have all the ingredients so I made it with what I had using rasins and dried cherries and pecans. Very yummy and I don’t even like chocolate. But, with making the lifestyle changes I haven’t made my husband dessert for a while. Don’t know if the raisins and dried cherries still make it GF?

Elana, good point about adjusting the recipe! I dehydrate after soaking, and got mine a little too dry for this recipe. So for any soaker-dehydrators out there, check your walnuts often, or you’ll need to add more moisture. I ended up adding two more dates and it turned out fantastic! Took them to the office today to share with some foodie friends, and they were a HUGE hit!

Ok, I have just made the first recipe out of your new cookbook–the go to vanilla cupcakes and YUM!!!! I am so excited. I am a candida sufferer with many allergies and thanks to you I have got to say that even unfrosted that your cupcakes are stupendous and a royal treat. Thank you for sharing your fabulous recipes with the world. Sharon L. Ulam

Thanks Elana for such a great base recipe. I wanted to cut down on the carb/sugar here slightly so I tried it with dried cherries and then again with prunes. It worked great with both. I also tried them rolled in cocoa with some ground coffee mixed in. Awesome, thanks!

Hi Elana,
thank you for this great recipe.
I also received your cupcake book today, and tried the goat cheese savoury cupcake which was a success
One question though. Should I want to replace Agave with coconut sugar, what proportion should I follow?
I don’t have anything against Agave (unlike many) but I don’t always have it necessarily at home.
I would be grateful if you could let me know. Thank you

CAUTION!!! I’m probably the only dummy who didn’t know whole medjool dates have seeds, but your food processor may not forgive you if you forget to de-seed them! They are rock-hard and almost burned up my motor…oops! Thankfully, once I picked out all the seeds and removed the two that were wedged between my blade and bowl, everything got whirring again :). Thanks for the lovely recipe!

I love Katie too. :) I made a version of her fudge babies a while back, and my post was all about how I know a recipe is good when I start seeing versions pop up on all my favorite blogs. It’s kind of like kale chips. The recipe doesn’t really belong to any one of us, but we all have adaptations of the original idea, and I think it’s great to share them. I love love love chocolate and walnuts!

Yum! Elana, I love your recipes (have my walnuts soaking now so I can make these tomorrow). I’ve often wondered: where do you stand on soaking? I soak all my nuts and legumes before consuming them to get rid of those pesky enzyme inhibitors. Do you consider that step unnecessary?

Each version, this or power balls one are minor variations on the same general idea. I love them all! Using the dates and creating these raw treats are wonderful, easy, yummy, and healthy. Thank you! Just ordered 2 of your books!!

I am so happy with your version with the chocolate chips. And can not wait to try all of the variations on Katie’s site. I made the Cookie Dough Babies, and they’re great! You’ll have to do another food processor give away. I have to press mine down on the base to get it to run.

Oh wow, Elana, I don’t even know what to say! You are so incredibly sweet to me!!! This post made me smile so much. So so much.
(And I laughed at not only your title, but also your salt note. I love salt too!)

I’m so thankful to the commenter on my blog who introduced me to your website the other day!

I want to thank both Katie and Elana for the progression of this recipe. I added my own twists–a big handful of dark chocolate chips and I subbed out the dates for organic dried cherries and blueberries. The first batch was eaten very quickly, so I tripled the recipe today.

Well, as I am standing there making a zillion little balls I had a dreamy thought. Could the mixture be pressed into the bottom of a tart pan and baked? Sure enough it baked up beautifully and after it cooled it hardened to a perfect texture. Not being dairy free, I put a half recipe of Tyler Florence’s Chocolate Tart filling, baked, and whipped up a tad of cream for garnish.

Amazing! The tangy bite of the dried cherries really shines through. In fact, I think a cherry compote tart with this base would be amazing. I just saw one on The Kitchn, so maybe that will be my next adventure.

Get free recipes by email!

Email Address

All content on elanaspantry.com is licensed and the original creation and property of elana's pantry (unless otherwise noted). You may use recipes from elanaspantry.com as long as their usage adheres to the following license criteria: (i) the recipe is to be credited to elanaspantry.com; such credit is to be linked back to the original recipe at http://www.elanaspantry.com/ (ii) you may not use any recipes for commercial purposes. Photos on elanaspantry.com may not be used.